Hungry coyotes no friend to felines

Eating habits change as rural areas are lost

TAVARES — House cats are disappearing in a Lake County neighborhood, and clues point to four-legged suspects: Ravenous coyotes.

Marie Baker's fears for her treasured white ragdoll cat, Stanlee, intensified when her husband, Roy, 55, saw a big yellow tabby cat trapped in the jaws of a coyote - "that could have been our cat."

The 54-year-old real estate legal secretary is one of several Eustis-area residents worried about a growing number of missing felines.

"These cats are disappearing right now," Baker said Thursday. "They're probably looking for food, and now they're just getting people's cats."

It's not unusual for coyotes to find house cats appetizing, said Sara Sillars, wildlife assistant biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. As development spreads into rural areas, coyotes adapt to their new habitat. They also create new eating habits away from their typical meals of small predators and rodents. If a hungry coyote encounters a house cat or small dog, the pets may look like a scrumptious meal.

"If they're hungry and they see an easy meal," Sillars said, "they're going to go for it."

Pet owners in this area northwest of Orlando are quickly learning how coyotes prey.

Eustis resident Deborah Reischmann, 55, made a startling discovery about three months ago in her backyard after her three-legged gray cat went missing: Balls of Zeus' gray fur and cat bones were licked clean. Reischmann found a similar scene a few weeks ago after Rufus, a long-haired marmalade cat, disappeared. The cats are two of five Reischmann lost in the past year and a half.

"I still am haunted about it," she said. "I think, 'That's nature,' but when they're your pets, it becomes a little more personal."

Owners can help protect their pets from facing the same fate with a few precautions, Sillars said. Coyotes are typically more active at dawn and dusk, so pets should be kept inside especially at those times. Dog owners should walk their small canines with a leash and during daylight.

If people see a coyote while with their pets, they should pick up their furry loved ones and walk in the opposite direction, Sillars said. With development forcing wildlife to adapt to humans, people will have to adjust to the nature that surrounds them, Sillars said.

"People are going to have to learn to change their behaviors," she said.

This is an issue residents in the neighboring city of Leesburg had to face in recent years as dozens of cats disappeared, resident Gretchen Summers said.

Though the 52-year-old cat lover understands how the natural world works, she wishes it didn't happen at the expense of her beloved cat, Penny. Summers last saw her 16-year-old pet in July when the cat insisted on staying outside one night.

"It's sort of a Catch-22," she said. "We're causing them to lose their hunting ground. I feel for the coyotes losing their homes. But, of course, there's no replacing our cat."